[lbo-talk] Re: Cuba Petition

BradHatch bradhatch3 at earthlink.net
Fri May 2 12:32:03 PDT 2003



> Message: 2
> From: "Luke Weiger" <lweiger at umich.edu>
> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re:Cuba petition
> Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 17:39:48 -0400
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
> > Still waiting for some of our petition authors and signers to explain
> > how Cuba should have defended itself against the U.S. Nothing very
> > convincing yet, but I'm not giving up hope yet.
> >
> > Doug
>
> How many of us are there here? Three or four or five? I'm not ashamed to
> say I really don't know enough to develop a treatise detailing exactly how
> the Cuban regime should go about defending the gains of revolution. I
can,
> however, still point out particular acts of repression (e.g. the current
> jailing of dissidents) that clearly don't contribute anything to the
defense
> of anything.

"That clearly don't contribute anything to the defense of anything" and what makes you so sure? Sponsoring of dissidents in other countries by our government has rarely if ever been as innocuous as you make out here. US sponsored dissidents have a terrible record in countries such as Chile, Guatemala, or the Congo.

I'm also curious as to why so many on the left want to buy into the rightwings distorted view of human rights. Is Cuba's human rights record so much worse than the other countries in the region? Why put so much scrutiny into the jailing of every dissident in Cuba when Columbia has the worst record of murdered journalists and Union organizers? Or overlooking Mexicos human rights record in Chiapis? What about the deplorable record our country has in promoting misery and poverty with failed economic programs in the region? It seems that by focusing so much on every offense of the Castro regime, is to buy into a strategy of diverting attention away from human rights abuses supported by our government. So I wonder what those on the left think they are going to accomplish by signing petitions condemning Cuba? I suspect its toattain some credibility with a conservative political establishment that is more than willing to use these petitions to support further attack on Cuba.

Brad


>
> -- Luke



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